Racing: Henderson feels blessed by presence of Saintsaire

As he marches round Seven Barrows each morning Nicky Henderson is buoyed by the idea that he is on the verge of winning the Triumph Hurdle. It is not an alien sensation for the trainer as he has already won the Festival contest on three occasions, a feat matched only by the late Fred Rimell.

Yet it is a horse which old Fred may now be watching himself at the racecourse in the sky which slows Henderson's tread, particularly at the moment he now passes the box now inhabited by Dusk Duel.

These used to be the premises of Bacchanal, who last missed a Cheltenham Festival in 1999, the year before he won the Stayers' Hurdle. The wild jumping which plagued the chestnut's career over fences finally appeared to have been eradicated by the application of blinkers in the early stages of the Pillar Property Chase at Cheltenham in January. However, just as he promised the earth, Bacchanal fell to it fatally. It was a swift and crude reminder of the nature of National Hunt.

"You can't help thinking – and it's something that comes back every single morning – I wish I had Bacchanal," Henderson said yesterday. "I absolutely guarantee that those blinkers had worked. They changed him dramatically at home and those first seven fences at Cheltenham there was no deviation or hesitation. He was absolutely brilliant. It was the best seven fences he ever jumped. The poor old boy fell because he broke his leg rather than the other way round."

The handkerchief could be permanently sopping in this game and the death of a horse, no matter how great, is accepted as part of a trainer's life. "There is no point being too sentimental about it and life has to go on," Henderson added. "But just this last week I've been going round thinking that I would die to have him around."

Still, there are the living compensations of yet another robust team to go to the Cotswolds with next week. Yesterday was the day to promote the Triumph Hurdle sponsors, JCB, if not the art of photography. Snaps were taken of the trainer's three entries in front of two yellow diggers. They are unlikely to grace the covers of coffee table magazines.

Henderson struggled with arrangements to ensure the horses would not be frightened, which was a bit rich coming from him. He was his usual colourful self in plum trousers, a yellow Rupert Bear check shirt, and a fleece and baseball cap in the sponsors black with yellow piping. Henderson himself trusts that next Thursday will be illuminated by the addition to a Triumph roll call which already features First Bout (1985), Alone Success (1987) and Katarino (1999).

Nas Na Riogh will be the one if, as seems improbable, the ground turns soft. "She's gorgeous," her trainer said simply. The most likely standard bearer though is Saintsaire, the ex-French horse who was sublime on his Newbury debut, but increasingly less effective, first at Cheltenham and then Kempton.

"If people have lost faith in him fine," Henderson said. "I haven't. I could compare him with my other three winners.

"From day one when we schooled him he was brilliant. It all got totally out of hand when Johnny Francome came to have a sit on him one day. He went zooming up over four hurdles like a cross between Istabraq and See You Then and the next thing it was all over the newspaper J Francome writes in. By the time he got to Newbury the whole world had backed him for the Triumph.

"We felt at that stage this was a horse that didn't have a hole in him. And I still think that. There might be in the trainer and a couple of things have gone wrong but I don't think there is a problem with him.

"He did at Newbury what we expected him to do. He was professional, he jumped, he travelled and he quickened. He looked the complete article. Cheltenham was a muddling race and he lost himself in the soft ground after the last.

"But if that whole thing was forgettable then Kempton was infinitely even more so. It really was a botch of a race. The door shut when he tried to get a run up the inside and that was for about the third time in the race. By the time it came to quicken up I think he was well pissed off with the whole thing. But Cheltenham and a good gallop will suit him. And he's in great form. I think he's a very, very good horse and that things have just conspired against him."

* Following some further rain at Cheltenham yesterday afternoon, the official going description was changed to "good, good to soft in places". Mainly dry weather, interspersed with showers, are forecast between today and Tuesday's start to the Festival.